During the spring of 2015, Drs. Kristin Ditlow and Karola Obermüller began planning the first installments of a contemporary music exchange. This exchange would bring American contemporary music to Germany, and likewise sponsor performances of contemporary German music in New Mexico.
The project quickly expanded to include Professors Eric Lau and Scott Ney, with performances in Nürnberg and Darmstadt and master classes in Würzburg.
darabq1summer2015 from Kristin Ditlow on Vimeo.
The program included compositions by Volker Blumenthaler, professor for composition and theory at Nuremberg Hochschule für Musik, Cord Meijering, director of Akademie für Tonkunst, Darmstadt; UNM Music Faculty Karola Obermüller, Jose-Luis Hurtado, Peter Gilbert, and Richard Hermann; and noted composers Olivier Messiaen, Lori Laitman, Milton Babbitt, and James Beale.
The Nürnberg performance was hosted by Monika Teepe and Volker Blumenthaler while the Würzburg Hochschule für Musik hosted master classes for percussion and saxophone. The Akademie für Tonkunst, Darmstadt, was the host for the Darmstadt solo “klavierabend.”
Future performances and exchanges are being planned for the coming season.
Music from the Americas presents The Low Frequency Trio
Formed by Antonio Rosales (bass clarinet), Juan José García (doublebass), and José Luis Hurtado (piano), LOW FREQUENCY TRIO is one of the few ensembles in the world that plays music that was exclusively composed for them.
Music, Power, and Signification: A Phenomenological Reading of Race in New Spain
In New Spain, an institutional structure of merit and promotion hinged on the idea of reason as an intrinsically European attribute. This attribute differentiated ‘Europeans’ from people of mixed race claiming European status based on their skin complexion.
“Reclaiming ‘the Border’ in Texas-Mexican Conjunto Heritage and Cultural Memory”
The Texas border town of San Benito is the subject of this talk which examines how memory and legacy operate within a community of “self-appointed” cultural brokers and a local municipality inspired by capitalist notions of urban development, economic growth and cultural tourism.